Tori
(2005/nisennen/dotlinecircle)
Nisennenmondai's second mini-album finds them running along in a similar vein to their debut, "Sorede Sozosuru Neji", with Sayaka Himeno's always impressive drumming and occasional over-use of the crash cymbal providing each of the tracks with their primary impetus. Track three is actually a different recording of track five off "Sorede..." with the addition of some vocal overdubs, which is to say that it's brilliant and a pleasure to make its acquaintance again, but while this is all undoubtedly good stuff, I can't help feeling that there's a whole lot more they should be doing in the studio, and that given a bit more ambition, a microkorg, a decent producer - say, Eno circa 1977 - and something more than the sub-lo-fi recording quality on show here, they could be producing Japan's very own "Loveless" or something. -Ian Martin, Feb.22.05.